Buso Renkin: Reversal of Worlds
by White as Sin
Summary: A ‘what if’ story about an innocent Tokiko without her scar and a cynical Kazuki with limited time. Major AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** A 'what if' story about an innocent Tokiko without her scar and a cynical Kazuki with limited time.  
**Disclaimer:** Buso Renkin doesn't belong to me. The original AU was by the prolific author **The Sacred and the Profane**.  
**Notes:** Are all warriors only born when young and through great loss? Or can a young woman become the inner warrior she had bought so bitterly in another time? My apologies to **The Sacred and the Profane** for hopping on the AU bandwagon.

**Buso Renkin: Reversal of Worlds **

_He stared up at the sky and tried to ignore the dried blood on his hands. _

_Why did you let her die?_

_While he tried to turn his mind to more important things, he ignored the odd and unfamiliar warm wetness that ran down his cheeks._

Tsumura Tokiko rarely dreamed. But when she did, she dreamed vividly.

The haunted factory? Why was she there? She froze as she heard an insidious sound. Something heavy and metal dragging across the floor but it was worse than that. She flattened against the wall and saw the shadow of something huge, something monstrous- And a boy. He was a student but she didn't recognize the uniform. Vivid blue gakuran left open with a white shirt underneath. It almost looked like Ginsei's uniform but-

Why was he walking like that, as though he had no cares in the world, when something horrible was stalking behind him? What was wrong with him?! She tried to quiet her breathing as she flattened herself against the dirty concrete wall. No- This had to be a dream. It was a nightmare… The shadow arched and poised to strike. No! She found herself running, screaming, "You idiot! Move it!"

Pain exploded in her chest and she stared dumbly at the spike that had run her straight through. The hot metallic smell of blood flooded her nose and she could taste it on her tongue. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move. Was this- death?

Tsumura Tokiko woke up screaming.

* * *

"Oi-i-i! Toki-chan!"

Tokiko extended her arm and let the blonde boy run into it. He reacted as predicted and went flying, easily clothes-lined. A vein throbbing somewhere in her forehead, she said testily, "I told you not to call me that."

Nakamura Gouta rubbed at his bruised nose. "Fine, fine. Tokiko-senpai," he said sarcastically, emphasizing the last title. He got to his feet and picked up his dropped school bag. "Why didn't you wait for me? And why are you carrying your elementary backpack?"

The vein continued to throb at Tokiko's temple. "I forgot," she said flatly, just to make Gouta face-fault. "And I can't find my school bag."

"Tokiko-san!" Both of them turned to face the newcomer, a petite girl with light brown hair pulled into two pigtails.

"Saori-san," Tokiko said politely.

"Ne, Tokiko-san. Are you all right? We heard screaming from your room last night," the other girl said anxiously.

"What were you doing?" Gouta asked suspiciously.

"Nothing. It was just a dream," Tokiko said, trying to slide the matter under the rug as quickly as possible.

"It must have been a scary dream," Saori observed. "What was it about?"

Tokiko rubbed a finger across the smooth skin on the bridge of her nose absently. "I pushed a boy out of the way of a monster in the old factory," she found herself saying quietly, recalling the dream through a comfortable fog. "He was an idiot anyways," she added with a grumble.

"Eeeh? Was he cute?" Saori giggled. "Did you save him?"

Tokiko shrugged. "I couldn't see his face completely. And I died," she said bluntly. "It hurt."

Saori and Gouta both face-faulted. "That's awful!" Gouta yelled. "What kind of a dream is that?!"

Tokiko shrugged again as they passed through the school gates.

"Tsumura," a deadpan voice said. "What are you doing without your proper school bag?" The emotionless English teacher came up and stared at them unblinkingly with his blank gray eyes. She could feel Gouta tense up slightly; Saori was smart enough to take a step backwards but she was shivering too.

Tokiko bowed her head slightly. "My apologies, Mita-sensei, I couldn't find it this morning."

Thin lips pursed a little. "Unacceptable. Report to the faculty room during break."

Some hours later…

Tokiko came to the roof where Gouta was waiting with his dearly bought school lunch. He tried to pass her one of his tonkatsu sandwiches but she refused, having her own bento for the day.

"What happened?" he asked worriedly.

"Detention," she replied flatly. "Weeding the back garden after school."

Gouta gaped. "What the hell is up with that?!"

She shrugged. "I lost my bag, after all." She opened up her bento and started to eat.

"I'll do it for you," he offered. "Or I can help you out." He had an unusually eager expression on his face for a boy who never cleaned his room until the dust bunnies were the size of German Shepherds.

She didn't bother to look at him. "No need. It won't take too long. You probably won't even have to save me dinner."

"But- I can walk you home at least!" he protested.

"No thanks."

"Please-" he wheedled.

"No."

"Tokiko-san, you're so mean to a man!"

"Be a man then." As he shrank in mortification in the background, little mushrooms popping about his head and shoulders, Tokiko pulled out her celllphone, realizing she had just gotten a text message.

Her eyes widened. The screen read, "Enjoy your new life." Her surprise soon subsided as she noticed a little smiley emoticon at the end of the message, which made her sweat-drop. _What kind of person could have sent this?_ she thought to herself. Then she looked around furtively, though she didn't expect to see anyone there. Sighing softly, she closed her phone just as Gouta recovered.

"Tokiko-san, can you loan me your Japanese homework?"

A vein twitched in her temple. "Tell me how you passed the entrance exam?" she scolded.

He blushed and muttered, "I managed."

"With the lowest passing score," she growled. But she handed her notebook to him all the same.

Above, perched on the school's water tower, a young man closed his cellphone and smiled very slightly. Then his expression grew fierce. _Where are you?_

* * *

Tokiko was used to physical labor; she was hardly a delicate flower. Weeding was more tedious than actually backbreaking, after all. She dusted off her hands and surveyed her work, feeling sweat trickling down the back of her neck. Just a little more and she could go home and make something quick for dinner…

"Tsumura." She jumped as Mita-sensei came around the corner of one of the buildings. He tossed something familiar at her feet. A bag with a distinctive gear charm (Gouta had gotten it for her at a matsuri one year, against her rather loud wishes).

"My bag- where was it?" She went to pick it up but Mita's foot almost crushed her hand and she looked up at him in surprise.

A curious light was in his eyes and she had a bad feeling about the faint smile that was creasing his pale lips. "I found at the abandoned factory," he said, almost lightly. "When I was about to have dinner."

She found herself backing up a little and a flicker of memory flashed at the back of her mind. _A horrific shadow along a concrete wall… the hissing of steam engines and a giant snake… _"I wasn't-"

He advanced, his mouth seeming to open wider and wider with each word he spoke and his eyes starting to blaze red. "I killed you then. And yet you're alive. I must-" His voice became a sibilant hiss "-rectify this." And his body shook and shifted in a manner that no human had any right to change in, spikes erupting from his back and shoulders. A monstrous cobra reared, laughing in a hollow parody of Mita's emotionless voice.

She screamed and ran for her life, the monster racing after her. 'It's a dream!' she thought hysterically. 'It can't be- I'm dreaming again! Mita-sensei isn't that- that thing!' The chirping ring of her cell phone interrupted her hysterical thoughts and she grabbed it from her skirt pocket, answering it.

A young male's voice told her immediately, "Keep running. I'm on my way. Just give me three minutes!" His voice was urgent but quite collected and calm.

"Three minutes?! Who are you? What is that thing?" she screamed into her phone.

"I'll explain later. Just get out of the school. It's hard to talk and run at the same time."

"I want to know what that damn thing is!" she shrieked, so terrified that she dropped all honorifics and propriety.

"Long and the short- it's a homunculus. A monster created by alchemy, it looks like humans, acts like humans, and eats humans." Then he abruptly ended the call. She cursed vividly.

As she was running, she was getting to the front of the school, though she was going to be trapped by the construction they were doing to the wall if she wasn't careful- Then she almost ran into Gouta.

"Run, Gouta!" she screeched, shoving at him after skidding to a halt. "There's no time. Just get out of the way!"

Gouta stared like an idiot and she turned in time to hear the roar of the mechanical cobra. Time seemed to stall as she saw the huge links of the coils of the snake thud into view and the wedge-shaped head baring scythe fangs crash into the ground before her, swallowing Gouta whole. She stared dumbly as the cobra jerked his head once and bared his fangs at her once more. The scales shifted and an approximation of Mita's head and face emerged from the jaws.

"You cheated me of dinner," he said monotonously though a laugh started to bubble up at the end of his words. "Now I need a double helping."

White rage filled Tokiko's vision. She snatched up a pole from the construction site and charged at him, screaming. "Give him back!" she shrieked. "Spit him out! Give him back, you bastard!" Her vicious attack took him off guard for a few seconds and she thought she could see some headway into his scales. But he recovered quickly, withdrawing his head, and snapped her weapon in half.

"Silly little girl," he sneered. "Too weak to do anything. Only alchemy will hurt me."

She tried to wrench what was left of the pipe away even though the rage mingled with fear. She was going to die, she knew. And she couldn't protect Gouta-

Her vision blurred as a throbbing started in her chest. She tried to scream but could only release a choking noise as she clutched at her chest. Ah yes… a memory. She was staring at her corpse, eyes blank in a perpetual expression of surprised pain. And the same male voice that had called her was speaking to her.

"You died. You didn't understand the situation and you jumped in without thinking." That voice, it was so incredibly sad- It was heavy with guilt and pain. "It was my fault. You tried to save me. This is the least I can do for you."

A glitter of something in the moonlight. "Kakugane. The ultimate alloy regulated by gathering the essence of alchemy." He sounded like he was reciting something and the sadness never left his voice completely; if anything, it deepened. "It will activate by melding with your instincts, the deepest depths of a human mind. This will be a substitute for your heart and awaken your survival instincts. It will give you the strength to live again." Warmth filled her empty, cold chest and began to slowly and steadily beat. Ah… had she been without a heart? She never realized how much she needed it. "At the same time, you will have a new strength."

The last words were whispered, "You will gain another power through the human combat instinct, the power to fight. That is the true power of the Kakugane."

Her eyes opened again and she faced the cobra. A new strength filled her and pushed the fear away with a firm hand. Mita sneered again, "You should have been dead. I will make it that way!"

"Buso Renkin! Sunlight Heart!" There was the scream of sliced air molecules, a flash of red, and something snapping sharply in the wind. She stared at the blur of silver and red that resolved itself to a shining lance with a fluttering red scarf, held in the hand of a boy in a blue gakuran with wild dark hair.

"You! You were the one-" Cobra-Mita didn't have a chance as the boy charged at him, thrusting the lance forward and puncturing him in one smooth move. "It can't be! You were the one with the-" The boy twisted his lance and jerked it upwards, disemboweling the monster and sending metal bits flying everywhere. One strangled roar from the cobra-Mita and he disintegrated into nothing, leaving only Gouta, who started to fall to the ground before Tokiko ran over to grab him.

"Gouta!"

He was still breathing and didn't seem terribly hurt, to her immense relief. Once she made sure he was all right, she turned to the stranger.

He was a little taller than her and just a little gangly. His very dark brown hair stuck out in every direction but formed a zigzag series of bangs that almost hid his burgundy eyes. Under his gakuran, his white shirt had an odd design what looked like two lollipops over a western "w." A slightly goofy smile crossed his lips and creased the corners of his eyes. Tokiko had seen her share of smiles; his was warm, good-spirited and genuine, like sunlight, but something dark lingered in the depths of his eyes.

"I remember what happened," she told him. "I saw lights at the haunted factory and I went there- You were there, about to be eaten by Mita-"

"Nope," he replied a little sheepishly. "Sorry, but I was only acting as bait to draw him out."

Tokiko felt a flush of embarrassment fill her entire face. "I died because of a stupid mistake?!"

"Err… I guess we can put it that way," he said, flushing as well. "It was an honest mistake."

Gouta stirred in her arms. "Gouta!" she exclaimed but he didn't completely open his eyes.

"He's fine," the boy replied. "Nothing's wrong with him. He's probably better off than you."

She breathed in relief. "Good." She slowly got to her feet, supporting Gouta against her shoulder. Some made the mistake of thinking she was weaker just because she was petite and short; few made that mistake twice.

The boy was looking at her oddly. "You're an odd girl," he said bluntly. "You scream pretty loud, too."

A vein throbbed in her temple. "Forgive me if I've just been scared witless!" she snapped at him.

"But you're pretty strong." He smiled at her. "Brave too. You're interesting." The lance dissipated into a small series of glowing hexagons that hovered around him before reappearing as a hexagon in his palm.

* * *

At the infirmary, Tokiko found the dictionary after getting Gouta in a bed. "Alchemy," she read aloud.

"Scientific synthesis techniques that spread through Europe before the modern age," the boy quoted, coming up behind her. "The goal was to create the potion of immortality or to turn lead into gold. Even if they didn't succeed, they created the basis for modern science."

"But alchemy couldn't have created that- thing," Tokiko said, flustered. She wasn't sure whether it was from his close contact or from trying to reconcile something that came out of fantasy with real life. Her eyes went to the side and she almost thought she saw his face turn red before he jerked away from her.

"This is just a basic dictionary, isn't it?" the boy said with a shrug. His ears were a little red as he looked in the opposite direction. "In reality, there are two kinds of alchemy. The one you don't know about defines logic and resulted in the ultimate creation: Homunculi and Arms Alchemy."

"Homunculi? Arms Alchemy?"

"Homunculi are creatures from research in creating artificial life," he said and his voice became hard. "Arms Alchemy is from weapons development. Both were considered extremely dangerous and kept a secret from the world, except by those who mastered alchemy. But there are those who have escaped supervision… They are scattered all across the world and they hide, eating humans."

"The haunted factory," she murmured. The boy nodded and went to the window, which had a perfect view of the site.

"It's a base for the Homunculus," he said. "I got one. Now I have to get the rest. Buso Renkin." The lance materialized in his hand again and she realized how easily he held it, despite the fact it looked heavy enough to send him crashing to the ground.

"Wait- You can't go there alone," she blurted out. Her hand reached out to grab his shoulder, so she could shake some sense into him like Gouta- But she stopped in time, realizing just how rude that would be. Besides, this wasn't Gouta. This boy was something else entirely.

He smiled at her and she couldn't help but see that it held a great deal of sadness. "You can't. It's my responsibility as an Alchemist Warrior." He hesitated, and added, "I gave you the Kakugane that acts as your heart so you could live. I can't let you throw that away."

"Then why are you telling me all this?" she demanded.

"So you don't feel lost. And so you know what I'm facing so you can get away." His expression grew serious. "I've interrupted your life, your world already. Don't let me disrupt it anymore."

"But-" Gouta stirred and she shot an alarmed glance at her friend's direction.

"Battle is my mission," he murmured. "Please don't come," he said, a bit louder.

"But you're going alone!"

"Think of your friend," he told her. "You shouldn't leave him all confused, y'know..."

"He's already that way," she replied dryly and he politely sweat-dropped.

Then his expression darkened. "This is not much of a choice. You can stay here and have the life you still live. You won't have much of a life if you follow me. It's not a good life at all… it won't suit you." Despite his polite words, he didn't seem to be giving her any choice in the matter. She tried to protest by words died away from heir lips.

He opened the window, letting in a warm spring breeze laced with sakura petals. Then he offered her a faint but the most sincere smile she'd seen yet; somehow all the others seemed flat in comparison to this one. "Be safe, k?" And he vanished.

* * *

Gouta woke up a little later to find Tokiko staring right at him. He almost fell out of bed. "Tokiko-chan! Don't _do_ that! It's freakin' scary!"

"Come on, let's go back. In fact, let's run there," she said with a rather ominous expression in her amber eyes as her mouth spread in something like a grin. One of Gouta's eyes twitched nervously.

"K-k?" he managed to say.

Some time later, Kouji found him on the front of the dorm complex. "Ow, ow, ow," Gouta was yelping in a steady stream, looking rather dazed while sprawled on the floor.

The glasses-wearing boy crouched on the ground next to him. "Gouta? I thought you were going to get Tokiko-san."

"Yeah- I did," Gouta said feebly. "Except she dropped me off here and said she forgot something at school. She ran off before I could say anything. Ow."

Kouji sweat-dropped. "I see."

"Don't just say 'I see'! Help me up!"

* * *

Kazuki slashed at yet another ape Homunculus, crushing it to bits. While it wasn't difficult to dispatch these low level monsters, they were starting to come at him in waves, climbing up the walls and leaping at him. If he wasn't careful, he'd be overwhelmed- The last one crumbled apart with one last slash and he was left in a desolate battlefield littered with rusting parts.

Panting, he looked around for the primary Homunculus with narrowed eyes. His black hair was even darker from sweat and the ends were drooping. A gruff, deep voice rumbled from the shadowed corners of the factory.

"So you're the Alchemic warrior." Saruwatari, a hulking tanned man in baggy green cargos and a skintight black wifebeater, stalked from the shadows, arms crossed. "You're better than I expected… but you were stupid enough to come in here alone, boy." His body started to shift in a way that never ceased to roil Kazuki's stomach, his muscles sliding way for geometric panels of metal that formed jagged stalagmites. Soon an immense mechanical gorilla towered over him, the man's upper body and head on the torso.

Kazuki smiled thinly and drew up his lance. Saruwatari roared, "I will crush you like a bug!"

The boy waited, ready to dart away at the last second as the immense fist came at him. But when he tried to reposition his feet, he couldn't.

"Saruwatari-sama! I've got him!" the remains of the smaller Homunculi buzzed, wrapped around Kazuki's ankles.

"Damn!" Kazuki lashed out with his lance, severing monkey's arms straight through. But this wasn't the only one that hid from under the bodies. They teemed up and grabbed him, pinning his arms too, seizing the cloth of Sunlight Heart and tangling it up.

"Trapped like the little insect you are!" the gorilla roared in triumph, fist coming closer.

A rusted side door burst in and a small girl in a yellow school uniform dashed through, tossing aside a brick. Both Saruwatari and Kazuki stared as she ran in, a fierce expression glowing in her amber eyes.

She reached at her heart and cried, "Buso Renkin!"

* * *

The boy's quiet, sad voice recited, "You will gain another power through the human combat instinct, the power to fight. That is the true power of the Kakugane. It gives form to the user's dormant power and will create a unique weapon. Grasp, resolve, roar. It's called…"

"Buso Renkin!" she shouted. Power filled her and sang. It coalesced around her legs, cool metal touching at her thighs but feeling lighter than air. Four blades hummed to life around her and launched her in the air. She leapt, feeling them respond to her very thoughts as they diced away the mechanical arms and torsos keeping the boy and his lance trapped. Then she leapt at the gorilla, who swiped at her. Her blades sliced his arm and he yelped as they gouged deep into his wrist. They retreated in time as he made to backhand her and she landed on the ground safely.

"So you had an ambush too," the gorilla-man growled. "Very good. But is she even remotely useful?"

Tokiko snarled silently and her blades helped her jump into the air. But this time he was ready and he snatched at them, threatening to crush the long scythe like blades. A wave of disoriented pain ran up her spine and she flinched, grabbing her chest. The other two blades were free though and they went for the unprotected torso. Her aim was off and they only glanced off, missing the projection of a human head and chest. She cursed as she tried to aim but he arched his torso away from her, protecting that vulnerable spot.

"Pierce, Sunlight Heart!" There was a flash of blinding light and a crunch of metal. She had a quick glance of the boy charging at an inhuman speed at the gorilla and the tip of his lance stabbing into the human head.

The face distorted and he managed one last horrible cry before the boy thrust completely through him. His momentum sent him nearly flying into the wall ahead but he turned at the last minute and kicked off it, landing safely on the ground. Tokiko wasn't so lucky or so graceful as the Homunculus collapsed in on itself, sending bits of metal flying everywhere. She yelped as she sailed through the air but her blades were ready for her. They flexed and spread, getting her straightened out and landing her safely on the ground. The boy had been trying to catch her as she screamed but he just missed being impaled through by one of the scythe-blades as it stabbed into the ground. He yelped, dancing back just in time.

"Are you all right, Tokiko-san?" he asked worriedly.

"Just fine," she wheezed, her heart feeling like it was beating far too fast. Eventually, the pain in her chest eased and she could breathe properly again. Her knees felt watery all of the sudden and she knew that the only thing keeping her up was her blades. Speaking of which… she eyed them with interest.

They were surprisingly elegant, gleaming silver chrome that were lovely in their stark simplicity except for some details of hexagons. She liked them instantly; they looked like scythes and scalpels. Experimentally, she stretched out her hand and the front right blade twitched and extended forward, making her skirt shift.

The boy jumped back, flushing. She glared at him. "I hope you weren't looking where I thought you were looking," she snapped. "Pervert."

"Not at all! I swear!" he babbled, turning red as his lance's scarf. He looked up and met her eyes solidly. Why hadn't she realized that his eyes were a curious shade of garnet red? "I thought I told you to go back with your friend!"

"I did," she informed him. "I dropped him off and ran back here. A thirty minute run."

"I didn't give you a choice!" he said, sounding almost angry. His eyes blazed for a moment but she couldn't care less.

"I didn't want one. I already knew what I had to do," she replied just as testily. She folded her arms. "Look, I care about Gouta. And you act just as stupidly as he does, so you need to be looked after just as much as him." She glared, sending him a wintery look through her amber eyes.

The boy jerked his head to one of the walls. "Look over there," he said.

She looked and blanched. Human bones, some crushed, but all of them picked clean and gleaming white under the dim light. Empty eye sockets stared at her; some of the bones seemed very small. "Kami-sama," she breathed, horrified.

"That's what they do. I think that this isn't their only base. Chances are there are even more of them in this town. My mission is to root them all out." He looked grim. "I'll let this slide for now but you can't follow me." His eyes looked to her and didn't quite plead but came very close.

"If there are these- Homunculi running around, Gouta's going to be in danger. My classmates are going to be in danger. So there's no choice in what I have to do. You gave me these." She gestured to the blades. "You can't expect me to stand by and do nothing. You can't expect me not to do something for those people." She gestured to the bones.

He looked at her steadily for a long moment then he made his lance disappear. She noticed that the motes of light that made it up faded into his chest rather than into a hexagon and wondered. "Come on," he said, offering a hand.

Tokiko paused, not sure about how to make her weapon disappear but even as the thought flickered through her mind, the blades disengaged from her legs and disintegrated into light motes that faded into her chest. He caught her as she started sagging to the ground and helped her walk out, to her embarrassed relief.

Once out in the sweet spring air, he said, "Sorry for… everything." He sounded very sincere despite his sheepish tone.

"I can't just stand aside," she told him, concentrating on walking as steadily as she could. "Not when you gave me the ability to fight these monsters. I'm going to help you eliminate them all," she said fiercely.

"Nothing I tell you is going to stop you, is it?" he said with tired laugh.

"Never."

"Right then." He propped her against a tree. His lance appeared in his hand and he pointed it at her. "I'm going to have to train you then, as an Alchemist warrior trainee. Promise me that you'll never die in front of my eyes again. Especially when you think you're going to save me!" Though he kept his tone light, a note of fierceness entered his voice at the command. "If you're going to tag along, you're going to have to listen to me. Got it?"

"Right." She grinned at him and then tilted her head. "By the way, what's your name?"

He flushed instantly, even under the moonlight. "Ah! I never did tell you, did I? How rude of me. It's Kazuki. Mutou Kazuki."

"I'm Tsumura Tokiko."

"Tokiko-san." And he smiled broadly at her.

* * *

Note: Why did I have Tokiko fail in killing Saruwatari? Because the Valkyrie Skirt isn't meant for very strong and high-endurance opponents, at least according to Wiki. I can see that happening, quite frankly. Though she would use her instincts, I don't think she would have had the ability to focus on his weaknesses and use her weapon to cut him to ribbons; her basic strength is in her ability to be quick, smooth and clean in her attacks.

A couple of notes on names:

"The Japanese name Kazuki may be written with the characters for "one" (kazu) and "timber trees; wood" (ki). Other possibilities include "harmony; Japanese style; peace; soften; Japan" (kazu) and "timber trees; wood" (ki), as well as "one" (kazu) and "radiance; shine; sparkle; gleam; twinkle" (ki)." –Quoted from an online babyname site.

I think that the last one is the most appropriate, no? "One Radiance" describes Kazuki pretty damn well.

Tokiko is most commonly known as "Child of Toki." "Toki" can be translated to "Full of Hope" or "Time of Opportunity." Not quite as appropriate, perhaps, but some apt points to be made about her.

According to the Wikipedia article, Tokiko was based on Hitokiri Battousai, of Watsuki's other famous series, Rurouni Kenshin, at least in appearance. Kazuki was based on Makimachi Misao. I decided to swap them just a little bit.

So how would Tokiko have turned out if she hadn't been the survivor of the school massacre? How would Kazuki be if he had been the Arms Alchemist first? I mulled about this for a while and came to a couple of conclusions.

1) Kazuki would be a cynic. I know that this is the antithesis of his basic character but I think that even the best optimist would be horrifically battered after the horrors of Alchemic training and missions. But- he wouldn't show his cynicism; he'd quietly acknowledge it, along with his hypocrisy, and paste a smile on his face, like Kenshin. He would figure it's easier to smile just a little and seem disarming, particularly in an attempt to somehow interact with the world he's forced to distance himself from and to try to live as much as he can as a human. Human life means a lot to Kazuki and he knows that he has the responsibility to protect human lives because he has the power to do so ("Great power comes with great responsibility" and all that jazz).

1a) Kazuki would still be the Victor, not Tokiko. It lends Kazuki's role reversal an interesting aspect, particularly when he ends up infected by a Homunculus. He _knows_ he has a Black Kakugane in him, perhaps because someone let it slip, and that knowledge privy to only a few people, including Bravo, who gave it to him by accident when they first met. Kazuki can only stall for time before he becomes a Victor. He's looking for a cure but it's becoming more and more hopeless and he knows it, though he'll try to find the solution for as long as he can keep his humanity.

1b) Kazuki would still have his sister. She would _not_ be an Alchemist but she would know about her big brother's secret. The organization helps to pay for her schooling at the Newton's Apple All Girls Academy (a good, relatively safe school that also keeps Kazuki compliant) and she's been trying to read up on Alchemy in an attempt to help him (even though science isn't her thing, period).

1c) Kazuki was saved as a child from a similar massacre as Tokiko. His sister escaped because she was sick that day at home. Bravo saved him just from the point of death; everybody else was eaten or killed in a subsequent landslide and Kazuki had been killed by being thrown against a pole or some other thing that pierced his heart and was left for dead by the Homunculus.

2) Tokiko would be just as sober as she is in the original story; I think that this is a basic aspect of her personality. I can't see her being incredibly silly as a child; polite and kind maybe but never as 'genki genki' as Kazuki is. I think she'd be more of a typical girl (and I hate myself for saying that) though just as brusque and bossy as her original form, as well as unwilling to let her best childhood friend Gouta (who not-so-secretly has a crush on her) to walk her home. Under the girliness, she has a backbone of pure steel, though most would consider that a bullheaded stubbornness, and a curious sense of justice. While she respects human life, she takes a pragmatic approach to serving others. Vengeance comes to her easier than saving people.

2a) Tokiko would get her distinctive facial scar eventually while becoming an alchemist warrior, at a very important point. She would refuse to get it healed "properly" of course and use it as a point of resolve for her, perhaps in saving Kazuki from his Victor side.

2b) Tokiko would be an orphan. Her parents set up an account for her, which is why she's able to go to a decent school, but otherwise, she has one relative who looks out for her but is unable to do much. Gouta would probably be the 'boy next door' who opted to go with her to a far away school and just barely got in through the entrance exams. Having no parents would maintain Tokiko's stoic personality and a certain determination to handle things by herself.

3) Kazuki would feel a lot of guilt about having Tokiko die which is why he would give her the Kakugane he happened to have with him. He wouldn't cry, not even in front of her corpse, but he would speak the words of the Kakugane and Alchemist Warrior's Code distantly to her as if reciting them, not out of admiration (these were probably the exact words Bravo told him when he was saved as well). Having someone killed on his mission, particularly a female, would be one of the worst things to happen to him and would damage him greatly. His words don't mark a good start to their relationship and would probably come back to haunt him or both of them.

4) Kazuki would train her but always would be holding back a little, to her frustrations. She would end up pinning him to a tree with her Valkyrie Skirt and scream at him, saying that how can she become stronger if he keeps being easy on her. Homunculi wouldn't show her mercy and he's sending her to be killed if he doesn't buck up and train her right. The parable of the butterfly and the boy would probably pop up, echoed by Chouno. Kazuki would smile, apologize and not hold back, leading her to comically come back with a lot of bruises, to the horror of her dormmates.

5) Bravo would be an undercover agent or an ex-Alchemist who quit because of his overwhelming guilt. He kept his Kakugane and because of its immense defensive abilities, he can use it to keep his identity hidden and to quietly protect wherever he's staying. Bravo probably trained Kazuki initially (and thus started his love of green vegetable juice) before leaving, and he also probably found Kazuki and gave him the Kakugane. He probably found out too late that the Kakugane was a disguised Black Kakugane and by that time had grown so attached to Kazuki he couldn't bear to kill him. So he trained Kazuki and told him what had happened as well as training him viciously to restrain the Black Kakugane under periods of great stress (if Kazuki couldn't control it, Bravo would have killed him himself). Bravo then left the organization and was never seen again. For some reason (most likely just because it's his personality), Kazuki has never been bitter and has reasoned that departure with, "Bravo had some sort of reason to leave. It wasn't me." But he would be just a little bewildered. In the mean time, as the dorm supervisor, Bravo would be keeping an eye on Gouta and Tokiko, particularly Tokiko because something about her reminds him about someone in his past, not to mention he finds himself charmed by this seemingly delicate, stoic girl who can easily kick most of the guys' butts.

These are my basic notes. Some details may change. The reason why I've put up these notes is to show my reasoning when I developed this storyline. I may end up writing more; I may just leave it at this. Look for the "Complete" status. For now, enjoy my mad thoughts and digressions.


	2. Chapter 2

Summary: The first battle is done. The gauntlet is thrown. Now what?

Disclaimer: I don't own Buso Renkin. The Sacred and the Profane did the first AU fic.

Notes: I had to mangle a few ages here. I'll have to tell you that it's harder than it looks to remodel the cast. For now, I've had to push Chi-chin and Sa-chan a year older, to give Tokiko some female classmates (though she has few friends, obviously).

**Cleanup Duty**

"Muto Kazuki? Tokiko-san, why do you have a boy's name in your cell phone?" Saori innocently asked, holding Tokiko's pink and chrome phone.

Tokiko instantly flushed and snatched the phone away. "Why are you even looking through my log?" Saori only flashed a rather wicked grin, making Tokiko glare.

Class pervert Okakura perked up. "Tokiko-san? The infamous ice princess of class 2-B? A boy's name? Is there hope for any of us?"

Tokiko's eyebrow twitched. "No," she said, deadpan. "Especially not you."

Okakura went to the ground, catatonic in despair.

"Forget it, Okakura," Rokumasu said with a sardonic smile. Tokiko always felt vaguely uneasy about her gray haired classmate; she wasn't precisely scared of him but he had a number of unnerving qualities.

The genial and plump Daihama laughed. "And you should be nicer about Tokiko-san. I don't think she appreciates being called an ice princess." Tokiko considered nominating Daihama for sainthood for a few moments as she tucked her phone into her pocket.

The much shyer Chisato tilted her head. "Tokiko-san, do you really have a boyfriend?" she asked with a slight blush.

Tokiko shook her head violently. "No. He's just an acquaintance." She felt the phone buzz against her hand and she slipped it out again, unsurprised to see that it was Kazuki. Answering, she discreetly went to a corner. Kazuki's warm, good-natured voice said, "Could I see you after school?"

"By the factory? Of course." She turned off her phone, only to face an unholy trio of Okakura, Chisato and Saori.

"A date?" Saori inquired with ominous sweetness.

…

Despite Saori's clingy glee, Tokiko managed to escape her clutches and get out of school to head to the abandoned factory. She paused before the grave mound where the victims of the Homunculi had been buried and murmured a prayer for their souls. Kazuki joined her in prayer silently not long after; she caught him out of the corner of her eyes. He bent down to burn three sticks of incense stuck into the mound and the wind carried away the sweet-thick scent.

"How will their disappearances be explained?" she asked after they both finished their prayers.

Kazuki shrugged. "I'm not in charge of it. But someone will let their families know." A flicker of something sad and just a little frustrated crossed his garnet-red eyes before vanishing.

"We have to stop this," she said fiercely. "Before any more people are killed."

Kazuki turned an ever-present smile at her. "That's the spirit." They headed toward the factory and he said, "We got sixteen of the Homunculi here, which is the usual size of a 'nest' but I think that this was an experimentation place."

In the daylight, the factory didn't seem nearly as ominous but it held the ghosts of long ago death and pain. Tokiko wondered the merits of burning the place down; the very atmosphere gave her an uneasy feeling that wasn't fear but was closely related to it. They headed up to the upper levels and she realized something she had mulled over the night before.

"How did you name your Buso Renkin?" she asked.

He paused. "Someone helped me out with it," he answered honestly. "Someone I trusted a long time ago." Genuine fondness tinged his tone but there was a sudden air of wistful melancholy. He rubbed at the bridge of his nose absently and laughed. "He said that- Well, he said that I seemed happiest in daytime and my lance had the same warm glow as sunlight. And well- this weapon is born from my heart." He placed a hand over his chest and smiled.

Tokiko tilted her head. "So- I can name mine myself?" she inquired.

He nodded. "Well- it's something that comes to you. It's hard to explain. You don't choose the name as much as it chooses you."

"It sounds like something out of a video game," she noted ironically but she took his words to heart.

"If you put it that way…" They got to the second floor and Kazuki instantly became serious as he pointed to a curious set of machinery in the middle of the empty room.

"This is it," he said, considering the machine with extreme distaste. "I found this during clean up. It's a Homunculus body growth machine."

Tokiko stared at it. The entire thing looked like an organic, grimy car engine, with multiple tubes and dials. All in all, the entire contraption was just disturbing enough to make her skin crawl, even without knowing what its dire purpose was.

Kazuki went over and plucked out a long-necked bottle from the center of the engine, holding it up to the dim light. "Homunculi start out as living cells from organisms. They're kept in these kinds of bottles because they're very fragile. Without a safe, small environment, they'll die." Tokiko noticed that the bottle was empty. Kazuki's lips tightened. "But once they mature and are introduced to a human… they latch on and destroy their host's brain."

"Then… Mita and Saruwatari…" Tokiko stuttered, eyes going wide.

Kazuki nodded grimly. "They were once human. They were sacrifices and so were all the people that they ate."

"That's horrible!" she burst out, trembling with appalled fury.

"Someone's behind this," he said. "That someone deliberately created these little embryos and infected people with them… as an experiment." He spat the last words with the closest to hatred she'd ever heard from him. It wasn't just hatred; it was the fury of thwarted justice and disgust with anyone with such inhumanity.

And Tokiko could feel a matching disgust and fury rising in her as he silently tossed the bottle away and headed up to the roof.

Once up on the roof, they paused as a spring breeze passed them by playfully. "This is why we have Buso Renkin," Kazuki said at last. "So we can fight these monsters."

Tokiko nodded slowly. Kazuki continued. "We don't know much about the person who's creating these monsters. We don't even have much of a lead.'

"We have to start from somewhere then," she said matter-of-factly. Then she saw a shining dot of silver suddenly flash just behind Kazuki, something that looked like a coiled insect- "Kazuki-san!" Before she realized it, her Buso Renkin had activated and one shining silver blade shot forward, clipping the thing in midair and sending it flying past him. Her blade had either been too fast or the thing itself had caught against him because a thin, bloody scratch opened along the top of his right cheek.

Kazuki didn't notice, instead, he looked to the sky instantly, where an enormous metallic figure soared on wide wings before diving at them at a terrifying speed. "There! Buso Renkin!" His lance materialized into his hand and he barked at her, "Tokiko-san! Hold onto my lance and get ready to attack!"

Before she could think, she had grabbed the slender metal handle and before she realized it, Kazuki had flung the lance, and her, up into the air. She was soaring upwards in a terrifying moment, launched toward a mechanical eagle that became larger and larger as she approached. A man was on the eagles back, a man in a Ginsei High uniform jacket and wearing an odd butterfly mask.

He smiled at her coldly and she launched herself from the lance, sending her blades at him. However, the eagle had to wheel back, startled by the sudden projectile coming at it; more importantly, it recoiled because of Sunlight Heart's scarlet scarf, which was glowing. Tokiko cursed as none of her attacks connected.

"So this is a Buso Renkin," the man murmured just loud enough for her to hear and the eagle retreated, leaving Tokiko to fall back to the earth as the lance lost its momentum. She braced herself, clutching onto the cloth out of instinct. Kazuki was running to catch her but she couldn't let him.

Instinct took over completely as she _pushed_ the lance away and concentrated on landing as safely as possible- and she flinched at the sound of metal digging into tile as she landed ungracefully but safely back into the roof. Kazuki was just about as lucky; Sunlight Heart was embedded two inches away from his toes.

He looked to her worriedly. "Thank god!" he said, looking immensely relieved. "Are you all right, Tokiko-san?"

She nodded, catching her breath. "I think- that might be the man we're looking for?" she said. She took a moment to collect her thoughts then she saw his face. "You're bleeding!"

He lifted a hand to his cheek. "Oh, it's nothing."

"No it isn't!" she snapped, her instant maternal instinct taking over after one too many years of dealing with Gouta's scraped knees and elbows. She pulled out her handkerchief (one of many) and patted at his cheek carefully. It had been a shallow cut, she noticed with some relief but she knew that it should be taken care of. Muttering to herself, she dug into her pockets and was glad to find a spare band-aid, which she methodically applied to his cheek. She didn't meet his eyes exactly but she could feel his skin blush a little. Or was that just from the effort of throwing his weapon?

He smiled at her. "Thank you, Tokiko-san." Then he became serious. "My report said that there were at least twenty. So we have three Homunculi left and that creator."

"He was wearing a butterfly mask," Tokiko volunteered instantly. Her brow furrowed in memory. "And he has dead eyes." She shuddered a little.

"The three left are going to be the strongest," he said finally. "Because they're likely his bodyguards. We'll win though. We must."

She was not normally an optimist but who couldn't believe, at least a little bit, after hearing his conviction? He added, "It's not just about destroying them all. It's making sure that they never take sacrifices!" For all his enthusiasm, he sounded slightly frustrated. From experience?

"Never," she echoed softly. She couldn't say anything; she didn't need to say anything else. He'd said everything already.

…

They went back to the grave site for a little longer. She made a note to bring some flowers by later; the incense was good but didn't seem enough. _'Though I never knew you, I pray your spirits find rest.'_

They were then rudely interrupted by the people Tokiko least wanted to see. She stifled a groan, seeing Gouta at the front. The boy wore an expression of great irritation and kicked-puppy-dog disappointment. Daihama, Okakura and Rokumasu trailed behind, wearing mixed expressions. Saori was also present and Tokiko felt extremely uneasy at the expression in the other girl's eyes.

"So it's true!" Gouta burst out. "You do have a boyfriend!" He looked between Kazuki and Tokiko with constantly shifting expressions of extreme dislike and great hurt.

Saori squealed. "He _is_ cute! Where did you two meet, Tokiko-san?"

Rokumasu looked disturbingly calculating. "And why are you meeting in a place like this?" he asked mildly.

Daihama laughed in his usual manner and said, "Congratulations to both of you." Okakura on the other hand was dying in the background.

Kazuki looked rather bemused but she could see the back of his neck turning bright red in flustered embarrassment. The corner of her eye twitched and she sent her best ice glare at the lot of them.

"Since when did I say I had a boyfriend?" she snarled, sending all of them quavering and begging for forgiveness.

"Then- what are you exactly?" Daihama asked in polite puzzlement.

"Siblings!" Kazuki said this at the same time she did as they hooked arms. They realized the folly of this too late, which led to a furious but mostly silent conversation that went along the lines of:

"Why did you say that?"

"It was the first thing that came to mind!"

"You didn't think it through then!"

She turned around in time to see Gouta's mental cogs slowly grinding to process that. "But- aren't you an only child?" he managed to say, looking extremely confused and just on the verge of being truly disgruntled about it. Fortunately, several years of acquaintance had taught Tokiko that the best way to get Gouta to do something was to not give him enough time to think about what you were asking him to do.

"It's a long story," Tokiko said, giving him another glare.

Rokumasu was the first to recover from the group confusion as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and coughed. "Why don't we explain things over a drink in town?"

That sufficiently distracted most of the group; Kazuki certainly looked relieved. Tokiko nodded frantically as Saori latched onto the idea and grabbed Gouta by the arm to drag him away. Then- the sight made her heart stop temporarily. Kazuki grasped her elbow; he'd seen it too.

The little silvery dot, a mechanical silver embryo, was coiled in Saori's hair.

'_Damn. Why didn't I destroy that?'_ she thought furiously.

They walked down the hill path at an easy pace, Tokiko and Kazuki just a little behind the larger group. Gouta kept giving them suspicious glances but she glared at him. However, most of her worry was for Saori.

Kazuki said in a low voice, "You're going to have to do this. Sunlight Heart isn't quick enough."

She blanched a little. "But- they'll notice," she hissed.

"It's the only way I can see so far," he pointed out grimly. Then he smiled faintly. "You have better control of your Buso Renkin than I did. I'm sure you can do it."

The Homunculus made their minds for them as it twitched slowly in Saori's pigtail and started to move. Tokiko summoned up her Buso Renkin, sending a blade out to strike it in midair- wait a second- it was heading… towards her?

It was a matter of seconds. Kazuki shouted as she tried to frantically bat it away from her, knowing what it would mean to have it get her- And she went flying. The world went round and round, rocks and tree roots bruising and jostling her even as someone held her tight. And then everything went black.

She opened her eyes and saw the sky was dark and speckled with stars. Kazuki was nearby and he was groaning faintly. She scrambled over to him and spread him out, gently. He was breathing steadily and his body was bruised all over.

"Idiot!" she scolded him, even though she knew he likely couldn't hear her. "I thought Gouta would do something like that- but you?" She railed at him out of sheer hysterical relief at knowing that they were all right. Her fingers checked his heartbeat; it was steady.

His gakuran was battered and she gently got it off him. His shirt was in little better condition. It rode up and she saw something silver glitter in the moonlight.

Her heart froze. The Homunculus was embedded in Kazuki's abdomen.

Then his eyes fluttered open slowly. "Tokiko-san?" he said, blearily.

"Don't move," she ordered, trying to stay calm. "You didn't need to shield me from all that you know." She wasn't prone to babbling but- but-

He managed a tired, pained smile for her. "How could I not?" he asked her quietly. "I had to."

"Don't give me that!" She bit her lip in frustration. "I couldn't even destroy the Homunculus!"

He looked down instantly and saw the thing coiled up and quite firmly embedded in his stomach. Then he swore, vividly. He then met her eyes, flushing at his own foul language, and said, attempting to keep calm, "You prevented it from getting to my head at least."

Somehow, that made her feel even worse. He noticed her expression and instantly touched at her hand. "You did your best, Tokiko-san," he said. He winced as he shifted position.

"Even then… I'm sorry," she whispered.

He smiled again. Then he sat up with a groan to her alarm. "Urgh… Don't blame yourself. It could have been a lot worse. If it got to your friends or classmates…" He looked crestfallen even as he managed to meet her eyes steadily. "I've put you in enough danger as is. I would never be able to forgive myself if…" His voice trailed off and he became a bit more matter-of-fact. "We have about a week before this gets up to my brain."

"Is there any way to get rid of it?" she asked worriedly.

He nodded. "Yeah. Kill the three remaining bodyguards and capture the Papillon masked creator. He can make the antidote to this. We only have one week." He looked grim. "If we can't accomplish this by then… you have to kill me before I become a Homunculus."

She recoiled at the thought but then she realized what he meant. If the positions were swapped… she'd be telling him the same thing. "Fine then," she said at last. "We'll do it!"

He got to his feet shakily. The bruising seemed less livid suddenly and Tokiko got to her own feet, realizing that she didn't feel so sore. Kazuki winced, grabbing at his stomach. "Damn thing," he muttered under his breath.

Tokiko's ears itched. "There's something out there," she whispered. And three mechanical frogs jumped out at them. "Kazuki!" Her Buso Renkin activated once more at her instinct and she leapt forward to meet the monsters. She snarled. "Don't you dare touch him!" she shouted and she let her weapon rip all three of them to ribbons in midair.

She turned around and faced Kazuki, who bore an expression of awe. "You mastered silent summoning already," he said, looking surprised. "It took me about three days to learn that." He managed a smile as he raked back his hair with his hands. "It's a start to mastering your Buso Renkin."

She was going to master this weapon, she thought fiercely. She was going to master every bit of it and she was going to get that masked creator!

…

"Gouta!"

She caught the blonde easily, to the shocked but mild interest of the other residents in the male wing of the dormitory. "Tokiko-senpai, where did you go earlier-"

"Can I borrow one of your uniforms?" she asked bluntly.

He blanched. "Why?"

She paused. This was going to take some deviance. "Cosplay," she answered bluntly.

He stared at her. "Since when do you do cosplay?" he asked guardedly.

"Since now. Give me your uniform and I'll buy you lunch for the next week."

Gouta, who was always complaining about his allowance, was mollified by the bribe enough to not ask any embarrassing questions. On the other hand, he only had his PE uniform, which was good enough for her; there was no way Kazuki could fit into hers. She shoved a generous amount of paper bills (there went her savings for the last few weeks) into his hand and ran off with the magenta sweat suit before he could ask any more annoying questions.

Kazuki was sitting in her computer chair when she came back and he was pointedly looking out the window.

"You've never been in a girl's room before?" she asked as she came in.

"Well- yeah," he admitted. She tossed the uniform at his head and he caught it in midair.

"What did you see of the butterfly mask creator?" he asked, becoming serious once more.

She thought to herself. "He was wearing a Ginsei uniform. Green armband, so he's a third year student," she started. She grabbed a notepad and a pencil. "175-180 cm in height. Pale skin and black hair. Very thin." She bit her lip. "Eyes like a rotten pond," she finally said after a moment.

He nodded slowly. "Keep an eye out for him and call me the moment you find him," he told her.

"Try to stay out of sight," she told him back sternly.

"Of course," he grinned. "I'm a ninja."

True to his word, she didn't actually see Kazuki the next day at school. She went through her classes and made notes in the margins of her notebooks, though her results were far from satisfactory. By lunch time, she met with him by one of the cherry trees out of the way. He'd bought lunch for himself, including vegetable juice, to her horror, which he drank with an absent-minded pleasure.

"Well, we have it down to 120 people," he said. "That'll probably take us about three days."

Something was nagging her. "Something doesn't seem right," she said finally.

He looked up at her as she considered her uneaten lunch. "What do you mean?"

She shook her head. Upon further contemplation, her uneasiness seemed unnecessary. "It's nothing." She then glanced at him. "Are you all right?" she asked him. "You seem tired… and you hold your side a lot."

"Don't worry about me," he said cheerfully. "I'm good. I promise." He peered at her too. "You have dark circles under your eyes… have you been getting enough sleep?"

"I'm fine." She glared, annoyed at the sudden change in topics and his bluntness.

"Well, don't overdo it. Having your heart replaced by a Kakugane isn't an easy procedure. It's hard on the body… let me know if you feel any pain or if you feel ill." Oddly enough, she wasn't as irritated with his worry as much as she would have been with, say, Gouta. Somehow, she knew he genuinely cared (not to invalidate Gouta's feelings) and had good reason to be worried for her.

She sighed a little. "Break's over," she said. "Good luck looking." She headed back to class, only to be nearly hit by a frantic Gouta, who needed his PE uniform.

That night, Tokiko snuck out of the dormitory to the local shrine. She hadn't done aikido in years, even though she'd been one of the better members of her middle school club. While she never would have thought she would try the old but slowly returning katas with blades strapped to her thighs, she found it easier to calm down and collect her thoughts while going through breathing exercises. Her eyes narrowed as she contemplated the targets that she'd set up (salvaged bottles of Ramune and old milk cartons). She summoned up her Buso Renkin and started to train, focusing on her reaction time every time she sent out a blade to destroy a target.

The next few days passed quietly but frantically. She was aware of the time ticking down and she was more frustrated than Kazuki. Not that he was taking it extremely well but he seemed to bear the time limit with a bit more grace than she did.

By the end of the fourth day, Kazuki called a halt to the search on the school grounds. "There's no point," he said in exasperation. "He's not here. We're going to have to get a different approach. Hey… don't look so bad," he added. "At least he hasn't made a move for four days."

He looked over at her. "You still look tired. Go home and get some rest. We can have a fresh start tomorrow."

She was reluctant to leave him. "Are you sure?" she asked.

He nodded. "Don't make me order you," he said playfully. "Go on."

She sighed and shook her head. "Just- take care of yourself," she ordered him.

"I always do," he said with a laugh.

"I wonder sometimes." Still, she smiled for him, somehow charmed by him and started heading back to the dorms. About a block away, she paused. Maybe Kazuki could give her some pointers about her Buso Renkin. The aikido approach was a start but… it wasn't perfect. She turned back around, only to see him bracing himself against a telephone pole, hands clutched around his abdomen and his chest. He was breathing hard before he staggered off slowly, every step obviously in pain.

She could only stare dumbly. "Idiot," she whispered. But she didn't follow him. It was at that moment, a tall, long-haired femme-fatale walked down the road, passing by Kazuki. The woman was busty, easily filling out her crimson silk Chinese-style blouse and her legs seemed to extend endlessly in her tight fitting white slacks and ending with a pair of high-heeled black boots. She didn't even give him a look and he didn't seem to realize her.

The breeze brought with it the scent of rotting roses, sweet and cloying. Pain and sensation spread in Tokiko's chest and she clutched it, her pupils dilating and her irises paling. The woman stopped in front of Tokiko and said in a low, raspy voice, "He's adorable in his own little way, little girl. I'm sure he'll be delicious. Especially because we haven't eaten in four days thanks to you…"

The shorter female clenched her teeth as the disguised Homunculus smirked with rose-red lips.

"Don't you dare touch him," she gritted out. "Or I'll… I'll rip your guts out." Her eyes flared like golden ice.

"Are you challenging me, little girl?"

"You won't get to eat him. And you're going to take me to your creator," Tokiko snapped.

The woman's eyes glowed an unearthly red. "Really now? Do you have the strength to match your big words, kid?" she purred.

Her eyes narrowed in response. "I may not be as experienced as Kazuki-san but I'm going to take you down! Because I'm the only one who can now."

The woman threw back her head and laughed, long and hard, her voice scratching the air like lashes of thorns. "Fine then! And I'll bring back your Kakugane for my master." She smiled and it was a shark's feral grin. "By the river then. Where there aren't any distractions."

Later…

Tokiko collected herself. Fear defeated you before the enemy ever came into sight, she thought. Hanabusa flicked back a bit of her long black hair. "Hand over your kakugane, little girl, and you just may survive," she called lazily.

"I couldn't even if I wanted to," Tokiko retorted. _'This is my first battle alone… And I'll have to kill her.'_ The thought didn't bother her nearly as much as she thought it would. Kazuki had made it quite clear that Homunculi lost all of their humanity; they truly became monsters. Besides… this woman had threatened Kazuki; that she could never forgive.

"Buso Renkin!" Cool metal locked around her thighs and four lethal blades hovered before her.

The woman laughed. "You don't know what you've gotten yourself into, little girl." Her body shifted and morphed, until the largest rose bloom Tokiko had ever seen had emerged, with Hanabusa's torso and head sticking out from below the petals, wrapped in thorns. Enormous brambles supported the monstrous rose like misshapen legs.

"He'll become one of us," the woman continued. "And he'll devour you first."

"Never!" Tokiko snarled. "I know Kazuki-san. Even if he did become one of you monsters, he'd kill your bastard creator first!"

The woman's face instantly changed. Pure rage filled the lovely features and contorted them into a grotesque mask. "Disgusting," she muttered. "How disgusting that you pathetic little humans call my glorious master such things!" With the last words rising to an inhuman shriek, Hanabusa attacked, sending rose vines at Tokiko.

She leapt out of the way, but there were simply too many of them. Her Buso Renkin slashed at the ones that tried to get her in mid-dodge. However, Tokiko knew that it was only a matter of time before…

She was soon caught by the thorns which wound inexorably around the legs and blades of her weapon, winding towards her. Hanabusa laughed insanely. "Pathetic little girl!" she gloated. "My rose thorns form a net so tight not even insects can fly through. Now die!"

One last rose vine, tipped with a harpoon like thorn. It flew through the air and right through Tokiko's chest. Her eyes widened and she almost fell backwards. The pain filled her entire body, so painful that she had gone numb. _'Am I- dying again? No… No- I'm not dying… I don't have- a heart there anymore…'_

Hanabusa still laughed in the background as blood stained Tokiko's blouse back and front. She couldn't die. Not now. Not ever. Not without saving Kazuki from that- damned embryo. Not without hunting down the rest of the Homunculi. Her body rocked back and forth as the vine was forcibly ripped from her chest again, dripping her blood.

Something whispered to her, and she listened, strained for that quiet but firm little voice.

"Buso Renkin, release!" she roared and she felt the thigh bands unlock from around her legs, leaving Hanabusa only holding the framework of her Buso Renkin. Using strength she never imagined she had, she charged at the still surprised Homunculus and using one of the moves she had been expressively forbidden to use except in most dire self-defense, she gouged out the other's eyes with her bare hands.

The Homunculus shrieked, rocking backwards in pain and surprise. Tokiko reached back as well, throwing aside the mechanical eyes embedded on her fingertips. "Buso Renkin, at hand!" she shouted and soon she felt the thin metal of one of the limbs reach her grip. And with one last burst of effort, she swung her blade and beheaded Hanabusa in one swipe. The top of the Homunculus's screaming head flew off some distance and the rest of the body collapsed in itself. Exhausted, in pain, and suddenly extremely short-sighed, Tokiko collapsed to her knees before fainting, unaware of river bank rocks digging into her back.

…

Kazuki grimaced to himself and forced himself to ignore the pain. It was a sensation best not described but if he had to find the words, he would have said it was rather like having a lot of little mouths gnawing at him, constantly rubbing against his skin and the flesh below. He glanced at the bag that held the uniform that Tokiko had gotten for him and realized that he may as well return it to her.

Under the cover of night, he headed to the dormitories, climbing up the tree closest to her second-story bedroom window. She'd kept it open; it was a warm spring night. With a single, graceful leap, he hopped into the window sill, managing to land with something like grace.

"Tokiko-san- I wanted to return your uniform…" His voice trailed off as he realized that she wasn't there. Where could she be?

He hadn't been in a girl's room before, as he'd admitted. Well- Mahiro's room didn't count. Not really (even if his little sister was the poster child for girliness). He had noted that Tokiko seemed to be a bit Spartan in personality and in taste. No posters or mascots, very few photographs, including older one of a smiling couple, the woman holding a sleeping baby that may have had a passing resemblance to Tokiko. The other photograph was more recent, depicting a disgruntled though faintly smiling Tokiko wearing a pale blue yukata patterned with white flowers, along with her friend Gouta, who was in Western clothing. Only one plushie on the neatly made bed and it didn't show signs of wear and tear; a bunny smiled sunnily at him, white fur still pristine and fluffy.

He looked at her desk and couldn't help but shake his head. She was reading martial arts manuals. Probably to train? He exhaled. "Books are all and good," he murmured. "But Buso Renkin are something else."

"Hey- Tokiko-san-" The door opened and a lean blonde came in, holding two bottles of strawberry milk. They both dropped as Gouta stared at Kazuki.

"What are you doing in here?" he demanded angrily.

Kazuki blinked. "I was returning something to Tokiko-san."

"How'd you get in? Boys aren't allowed in the girls dorms…"

"Then what are you doing in here?" Kazuki pointed out reasonably, making the blonde flush.

"I live here!" he growled. He glared holes into Kazuki. "You've been spending far too much time with Tokiko-san. Where is she? She hasn't even shown up for dinner."

Kazuki's eyes widened. _'No…'_ He turned sharply and ran, hopping onto her bed and jumping out of the window, to Gouta's squawked surprise.

Landing safely on the ground, he pulled his cellphone from his pocket and started dialing. _'Tokiko-san! I know you're trying your best. I know that you have some sort of experience with martial arts, but Buso Renkin are different! It's a completely different training style… I should be training you in some way.'_ He prayed to no one in particular. _'Please be safe…'_

…

Kawazui licked his lips hungrily. He'd arrived just in time to see the arrogant bitch Hanabusa get slaughtered so viciously by the schoolgirl. Just to be on the safe side, he stayed back, not wanting to be disemboweled. In reality, the frog Homunculus feared the girl and knew the true danger she was, at least unconsciously.

Then- He watched with glee as the young warrior, obviously exhausted, collapsed onto the ground. His master would be pleased once he brought a Buso Renkin back and in the mean time, he'd have dinner. Finally.

His form shifted as he approached. He inhaled her scent and would have licked his lips again.

That was the last thought he ever had.

…

Kazuki stood over the remains of the frog Homunculus, panting. He'd arrived just in time and once he saw the monster posed over a fallen Tokiko- Rage had filled him. He roared as Sunlight Heart shimmered into being in his hand. He didn't even let the monster react; he speared him right through, violently jerking upwards and gutting him.

Vaguely, he could hear a squeal that extended for an odd amount of time. His eyes narrowed and he pinned his lance right between the legs of the little frog that attempted to get away from him unobtrusively. The machine squealed again in pitiful fear.

"Don't hurt me!" the Homunculus whined.

"You threatened Tokiko-san," Kazuki said, his voice dropping in register to an animalistic growl. Rage filled his garnet eyes and lit them with an unholy fire.

"Well- How can I help it, she's there and- Eee! Please don't hurt me!" The tip of Sunlight Heart ground dangerously closer to the frog.

"You're going to show me where the butterfly-masked creator is," Kazuki said with deceptively mild good humor. "Now."

"No."

Kazuki, as well as the frog, looked up instantly. A tall, muscular blonde man with tanned skin and a military bearing had appeared on the river bank.

"W-Washio!" the frog stuttered, eyes widening in fear.

"How dare you consider betraying the master?" the blonde man said in a monotone, but a dangerous tone laced his words.

"I wasn't going to- I promise!" the frog babbled.

"I know you already, you coward. Now do me the favor of dying."

Kazuki only blinked and he could hear the frog's elongated scream, which was cut short. He could only stare as the small Homunculus crumpled apart before him and Washio stood just a few feet away, extended an impressive set of claws over his hand.

"Renkin no senshi," the Homunculus said. "Do not attempt to find my master. Or I will be forced to dispose of you as I did of him."

"As if," Kazuki snarled.

Washio didn't respond. "Then I will send you to the grave," he intoned and vanished.

Kazuki grimaced then he remembered Tokiko. He instantly ran to her side, alarmed at the blood spreading on her uniform. But her heartbeat was steady and she was breathing.

"Thank God," he murmured to himself as he dared to gently brush some hair from her face. "As long as you're safe… Tokiko." He gently picked her up, cradling her against his chest.

* * *

Author's Notes: This is a personal project for me more than anything else. It's an exercise in character analysis; I want to see how well I know the characters and how I can modify them under different circumstances. I also swapped the frog Homunculus for Hanabusa, the rose Homunculus because of the gender difference.

Oh, there's not much on Papillon's/Chouno's end or the Homunculi's perspectives for now. I figure that it would be extraneous to do so. But I will cover Papillon later, particularly because he will have to contend with Tokiko primarily.


End file.
